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2.1. Requirements: How to Build Innovative Applications
11
as possible.
Stimulation of stakeholders: Users and other stakeholders are a good resource for
information about their work domain. But they are also locked into their world and
work practices. Don Ballman mentioned in a panel at InterCHI’93
[
Ballman 1993
]
that users are afraid of disrupting established routines and may be also unaware
of technological advances. User should be empowered and stimulated to envision
new opportunities: Lateral thinking of De Bono suggests to deliberately provoke
the brain in order to consciously leapfrog established thinking patterns
[
DeBono
1967
]
. Accordingly, it is not only about asking stakeholders for feedback but also to
stimulate them in order to reflect on their experience and, as such, come up with
new ideas.
Mediation between users and designers: Mediation poses the challenge of
enabling communication and establishing an information flow between stakeholders
and developers that allows to share models and notations that are not related to
their respective fields. Stakeholders and developers have to be empowered to look
beyond established routines and envision prospective opportunities for change. This
information has to be shared in a way which both parties understand.
Developer guidance: A development process should provide clear single steps
that guide the developer towards the final development goal. Only if a development
method provides enough guidance for the developers, it will be helpful. However,
there is certainly a limit of providing systematic guidance towards innovative de-
velopment, since creating innovation is a process of creativity. This creativity must
not be hindered by the process. Nevertheless, as much guidance as possible without
eliminating creativity is a desired goal.
Exploratory nature: In contrast to traditional product/software development for
creating innovations the goal is rather to exceed the user’s expectations. This means,
there has to be more than only validating specifications with the customer. One has
to discover relevant problems by experimentation, by trying out, and touching new
concepts: users should be able to explore and reflect on alternative approaches.
Yield feasible results in the end: For a successful development method it is
essential that, after a number of iterations, it yields feasible results. This does not
necessarily mean a product that could go directly into production, but at least an
output that developer and user consider to be useful.
Allow for multiple cycles with the user: The basic idea of multiple cycles
[
Randell and Zurcher 1968
]
allows the developer to take advantage of what was
learned during the development of earlier, incremental, and deliverable versions of
the system. However, learning should come from both the development and the
cooperation with the user. An initial proposal containing a subset of functions
should be iteratively enhanced until a satisfaction point of both developer and user
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